In the summer of 1998, Kerry Ligtenberg became an unlikely success story as a Braves reliever.
Sixteen years later, he is helping others follow his path. Ligtenberg is the pitching coach for the St. Paul Saints, an independent minor-league team. Ligtenberg, who in 1998 set the Braves record for saves by a rookie, began his professional career with another independent minor-league team in Minnesota after going undrafted out of the University of Minnesota.
Said Ligtenberg, who grew up just outside of St. Paul, “It’s funny how it works out.”
Ligtenberg, 42, has been the Saints’ pitching coach for the past two seasons, tutoring players who were either undrafted or who have been bounced out of the minor leagues. He imparts messages he learned well under former Braves pitching coach Leo Mazzone – understand your pitching mechanics and control the strike zone with the fastball. In his first two seasons, Ligtenberg said there have been five or six pitchers whose contracts have been purchased by major-league teams, as Ligtenberg’s was by the Braves in January 1996 for about $700 worth of baseballs and bats.
“That’s what we talk about (with players),” Ligtenberg said. “We’ve got to find a way to get you out of here.”
Ligtenberg said he had no intention of coaching professionally when the Saints approached him prior to the 2012 season. He had been coaching his a high school team and was also coaching his son Reese’s travel-ball team, but he followed the opportunity.
“Part of it is I missed playing,” he said. “I’m too old and too broken down to play, so it’s a way for me to be around the game and still kind of have that competitive feeling.”
Ligtenberg works his Saints schedule around Reese’s team, sometimes skipping road trips to coach his son. He has passed up on opportunities to coach in minor-league chains in order to stay at home. He and wife Sara, an elementary-school teacher, have three kids – Reese (12), Ryder (9) and Ava (7).
He’ll actually be in Cooperstown, N.Y., for a tournament the week before former teammates Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux and manager Bobby Cox will be inducted into the baseball hall of fame in July. With them, Ligtenberg went from undrafted pitcher to an integral member of division-winning clubs.
“It was a lot of fun for me,” he said. “Sometimes I wonder how I was even fortunate enough to make it there.”
As a Brave, Ligtenberg said he enjoyed the Chattahoochee River, either running alongside it or fishing in it.
“I’d go with (then-bullpen coach) Bobby Dews and (catcher) Mike Cather and other guys,” he said. “The big thing for me was finding even little ponds to go fish down there. That was fun. We really enjoyed being outside, and there was so much to do, places to eat, stuff to do.”
